ANAHEIM (AP) - Nathanael Blair went to the garage to move his truck early Christmas morning when he was surprised by a ski-mask-wearing burglar who threw a pipe wrench at him, hitting him in the jaw and neck.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Some residents slid down knotted bedsheets or clambered down people standing on one another's shoulders to flee a raging Christmas night fire that injured six people and badly damaged a residential motel near downtown Los Angeles, authorities said Friday.

OAKLAND (AP) - Protesters smashed business windows on the edge of downtown Oakland and tore ornaments and lights from a large Christmas tree in a protest designed to keep police working on the holiday.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - "The Interview" was never supposed to be a paradigm-shifting film. But unusual doesn't even begin to describe the series of events that transpired over the past few weeks, culminating in the truly unprecedented move by a major studio to release a film in theaters and on digital platforms simultaneously.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Sony's PlayStation network remained offline Friday on the second day of an outage that began roiling the online world just as eager video game players were unwrapping new consoles on Christmas morning.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Continuing a Christmas Eve tradition, Gov. Jerry Brown issued pardons to 105 people Wednesday, before retracting one to a man hours later after learning he had not disclosed recent discipline by financial regulators, a spokesman said.

OAKLAND (AP) - Lorrain Taylor smiled a toothy grin and was warmly welcomed by customers and employees as she entered a popular barbecue restaurant just off Oakland's waterfront for a lunch meeting last week.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - National marine sanctuaries off Northern California are due to double in size early in the new year in order to protect a massive underwater nutrient flow that biologists say makes the coast's salmon and seabirds thrive and sea lions fat and yappy.

RICHMOND (AP) - In December, the openly gay, white police chief of this tough, minority-dominated Northern California city held up a sign reading "#blacklivesmatter" during a protest over the deaths of two unarmed black suspects at the hands of Missouri and New York police.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A San Francisco Bay Area government association is accusing its former director of financial services of embezzling $1.3 million from a fund meant for parks and other public improvements.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Tens of thousands of newly released emails Friday show a former executive for the state' largest power utility routinely wining, dining and hammering out behind-the-scenes agreements on utility projects with state utility regulators.

DETROIT (AP) - The federal government is considering allowing those of Middle Eastern and North African descent to identify as such on the next 10-year census, which could give Arab-Americans and other affected groups greater political clout and access to public funding, among other things.

DENVER (AP) - Welfare money or food stamps for marijuana? It's an urban legend that won't go away in Colorado, and state lawmakers this year are poised to pass a law clarifying that public benefit cards can't be used at dispensary ATMs.

NEW YORK (AP) - Some new evidence this is a particularly bad flu season: Flu-related hospitalizations of the elderly are the highest since the government started tracking that statistic nine years ago.